Getting Rid of Planer snipe… How? G0459Z

[richard poitras]

What is the best way or how can I get rid of planer snipe. I have a Grizzly G0453Z with the grizzly spiral cutter head. The extension tables are both flat to the main body of the planer. Are there any adjustments that can be done to reduce the snipe? Any suggestions would be helpful.


Thanks Richard

[Cary Falk]

On mine, I lowered the bed rollers to about .001" above the table. I also raised the chip breaker, infeed and outfeed rollers a little bit till the snipe went away. All of the adjustments are covered in the manual.

[Charles Goodnight]

I saw this suggestion once, and I intend to try it some time.

I saw somebody who made a long board out of slippery material that had a stop half way in along the bottom of the board. The board was put in the planer and the stop held it against the infeed table. They then used that board as the surface to support the board being planed. The nice thing was that it was perfectly flat, and much longer than the standard infeed and outfeed tables.

I knew I could find "plans"

http://www.woodworkingmatters.com/My_Shop/planer_sled.htm

[Rod Sheridan]

Richard, what's this? A guy whose last name is Poitras buying Grizzly equipment????? The horror:eek:...........LOL.

Your planer manual should have detailed specifications on the adjustment of the chip breaker, pressure bar and bed rollers.

You'll need a dial indicator and mounting block to measure the cutter height above the bed, and set them parallel to the bed.

Then the chip breaker and pressure bar are set at whatever difference dimension the manufacturer specifies (perhaps different by 0.050" for example).

I have removed the bed rollers from two similar planers that belong to friends, as they only plane wood that has been jointed. (The rollers couldn't be adjusted below the table). You have to keep the bed waxed, however the rollers aren't needed for jointed material.

Regards, Rod.

[glenn bradley]

I have that planer and did as Cary describes. 99.99% snipe free. The bed rollers are very easy to adjust on this model with good reason. It is assumed you will adjust them to the material you are milling. Thankfully the setting I am currently using seem to work well for face jointed lumber up to 3" thick so far so additional adjustments will hopefully be the exception and not the rule. If required however, they are quick to do.

[richard poitras]

Richard, what's this? A guy whose last name is Poitras buying Grizzly equipment????? The horror:eek:...........LOL.
Regards, Rod.

Rod what can I say they don’t make’em the old iron any more!

But I do thank you and the other replies on how to adjust the planer hopefully it will work. I do have one of our forum experts (Mike Heidrick)coming up this weekend for his new Vega sander and we are going to try to get her tuned in if we have time.

Thanks Richard

[Danny Hamsley]

I have the same planer, and I get no snipe. I bet that you need to check all the adjustments to make sure everything is set right.

[Don Alexander]

if you adjust any decent planer correctly and have proper infeed outfeed support for the length of material being planed you should not have snipe

if you have snipe something isn't right in the setup

a correctly setup planer won't snipe 99.99% of the time

[Chip Lindley]

It [may be] difficult OR impossible to adjust all snipe out of a thickness planer. More power to you if the planer can be tweaked to preclude snipe.

But, if all else fails, try lifting up slightly on the board as the trailing end reaches the power infeed roller. Standing to the left side of the planer, use your right hand to push down on the board, and left hand to pull upward, effectively bowing the board a bit. Keep the board sprung upward until the last of it passes under the cutterhead. Most all snipe happens within this area.

[richard poitras]

To tell the truth I have not attempted to dial in the planer, I got it last year new and set it up but did not adjust any of the rollers and such, just used it as is and got some snipe.

[Harvey Pascoe]

Use a long straight edge to make sure infeed and outfeed tables are true to the planer bed. Snipe is caused by the board entering the cutter at an angle different than the bed, after which the roller grabs it and flattens it. This is particularly troublesome with long boards to make sure it is fed in perfectly level.

If you are getting snipe on the trailing end, it is ONLY because the outfeed table is sagging.

[Kevin Barnett]

You also need to have a flat surface on the bottom of the board. Joint one side, then send through the planer. That'll help quite a bit.

[Kevin Barnett]

If you are getting snipe on the trailing end, it is ONLY because the outfeed table is sagging.

I disagree. I could get snipe with no outfeed tables and lifting up. I think adjusting your bed rollers and jointing the board will help the most.

[Rod Sheridan]

Use a long straight edge to make sure infeed and outfeed tables are true to the planer bed. Snipe is caused by the board entering the cutter at an angle different than the bed, after which the roller grabs it and flattens it. This is particularly troublesome with long boards to make sure it is fed in perfectly level.

If you are getting snipe on the trailing end, it is ONLY because the outfeed table is sagging.

Harvey, that hasn't been my experience. My experience with industrial planers indicates that snipe was caused by lack of calibration.

My home planer (Hammer A3-31) has no outfeed support and planes with no measurable snipe.

If the outfeed roller/pressure bar relationship to the cutter head isn't changing, the wood cannot be raised into the head.

This leads to investigation of calibration, or strucural weakness in the planer causing the wood to deform the planer. I suspect that this is what is happening in portable planers, the planer structure may be flexing.

Regards, Rod.

[Howard Acheson]

The following is the detailed discussion from a couple of months ago in the WoodNet forums:

http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB2&Number=4992425&Forum=f2&Words=snipe&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=4992425&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=78613&daterange=1&newerval=4&newertype=m&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post4992425

[Mike Heidrick]

After ripping this machine apart screw by screw and piece by piece we have her all sorted out - all over Rich's shop floor!! Rich is now in the market for a new Felder combo planer and has a grizzly parts store open as a side business. Any metric parts fans out there???

J/K

The machine, after being measured out thanks to all these posts and the Griz manual and my buddy Tony taking teh time to do it while Rich and loaded a sander, is now snipe free. What a great machine and super quiet.

Anyone looking for a solid well built asian import 15" helical head planer should keep this one in mind! It is fantastic.